3 Months with the iPhone X

I picked up the iPhone X late December after a long bout of self-justification on the price. Here are my impressions so far, three months in:

• Using the iPhone X feels like slicing through butter. Smooth doesn’t quite capture it. It’s that visceral feeling of a chef’s knife gliding its way down a smooth block of butter. It’s true with every iPhone, but it’s more pronounced with the iPhone X.
• The new navigation gestures are the main reason why. The ‘flick up’ gesture for Home and the ‘flick up and pause’ motion for the app drawer feels so natural, you wonder why smartphone interfaces were not designed like this to begin with. The side swipe motion to switch apps feels similarly intuitive. These gestures feel right at home with the overall card metaphor and the elastic jelly feel of iOS. The only issue I have is Force closing apps by having to hold then click on the small red dots, but this product decision just reaffirms that Apple discourages the closing of apps.
• The other reason is Face ID. It works like a dream (with the strange exception of failing to unlock when I just wake up from bed). Touch ID is smooth and all, but you still feel like having to push an entrance door open before you can get into your phone. Face ID replaces that with an automatic self-opening door that detects your attention, sensing your intention to use it and melding together seamlessly with the new swipe gestures. Tapping to wake the screen then flicking up from standby feel like summoning a genie. The notifications opening up only when you glance feels like sorcery. Plus, it’s a miniature Kinect that shoots invisible lasers at your face - what more can you ask for?
• Of course, the real magician behind the curtain of buttery goodness is the A11 chip. Everything works on rocket speed here.
• Animojis are fun as a tech demo, but at least for me, that’s also where the utility ends.
• Like most reviewers, the notch does not bother me at all. Unlike most reviewers, I actually love it. It gives the impression that the contents of the screen are flowing out and cannot be contained. It’s honest design. It gives the iPhone a new face, and it challenges the notion that all screens have to be rectangular.
• The OLED screen is the best screen I’ve ever laid eyes on. It gets the best of both worlds – the deep blacks and vibrant colors of OLED with the color accuracy of Apple’s Retina displays. Bonus tip: Get a wallpaper with a black background: the content, bezels, and edges of the phone all meld together, and you feel like you’re holding a pure screen device in your hands.
• Battery life is phenomenal. It can last me up to two days of moderate use, or up to six hours of screen time. That’s unheard of in a smartphone packed with this much technology inside. (Granted I had the raise to wake and ‘Hey Siri’ features turned off, but still…)
• The camera does its job well enough. It takes great photos for a smartphone, but modern mirrorless cameras still have space to breathe. Dynamic range and colors are excellent, but the photos somehow come out a little too warm. I’m still constantly amazed at Live Photos though – still no competition in the market. And it’s nice to have an extra 50mm equivalent lens and a bokeh blur machine with you all the time.
• It still boggles my mind that such a well-crafted, fragile-looking package is also water-resistant. I still feel the butterflies in those times when I get to use this phone in the shower.
• The stereo speakers sound crystal clear and loud.
• I‘ve only used the wireless charging twice. It doesn’t just charge slow, you also feel awkward using the phone while it’s on the charging pad. Connecting the Lightning cable doesn’t take much more incremental effort than laying your phone down on a pad, so the small convenience tradeoff does not add up.
• I still find the space under the keyboard weird. I wish they could make use of this in some way, like a tray for commonly used emojis.
• The side button set-up makes it too easy to take accidental screenshots.
• The absence of a headphone jack still gets annoying. Good thing Apple redeemed itself big time with the life-changing Airpods (more on that in a future review)
• One underrated point for iPhone differentiation is the Taptic Engine. Handling an iPhone feels completely different from other phones because of the subtle vibrations in key interaction moments – pressing and holding on an app icon to reach a shortcut, scrolling and hitting the end of a list, they all add up to provide another sensory dimension. No other phone in the market has come close so far.
• I love how the motion coprocessors can track my steps accurately without any perceived extra battery consumption. It saves me from having to strap on a fitness tracker.
• I got the 64 GB version. Even for a serial app downloader and obsessive photo taker like myself, I feel like the storage space is more than enough.
• I’m still as smitten with the White/Silver combo as the first time I saw it in person. It gives the phone two different faces, an all-black front and a clean white back that melds together organically with the chrome stainless steel band. I hated the vertical camera placement at first (looked like a schoolgirl’s hairpin at first sight) but have now gotten used to it. I still think the Galaxy S8/S9 is the best-looking phone on the market, but I daresay that no gadget feels better in the hand than the iPhone X.

Overall, I love how this phone is so brazen and opinionated in its embrace of the future. At the same time, it’s honest with the design constraints (the notch) while maintaining Apple’s trademark of approachable luxury and organic craftsmanship. It truly feels like a next-gen phone. It’s a tech and fashion statement that sparks joy on so many levels. It’s a sliver of the future in your hands.